Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change 2026

Create and Learning Lab Agency are pleased to announce the 2026 Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change. This intensive programme will take place over six days, from 15–20 June 2026, in Killary Lodge, County Galway. The Deadline for Expressions of Interest is 5.30pm, 20 April 2026.

About the 2026 Summer School

Now entering its eighth year, the forthcoming Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change explores the work of collaborative and socially engaged artists and examines the politics of public art, counter publics, and the significance of place in an era of rapid geopolitical rupture and transformation.

Collaborative and socially engaged artists increasingly operate across multiple, intersecting community domains such as health, care, housing, post-conflict contexts, displacement, and climate change. Their work demands a wide-ranging skill set, including intuitive code-switching, deep listening, problem-solving, and advocacy. Artists in this field often act as mediators, catalysts, community allies, project initiators, enablers, producers, and more.

In 2026, we will highlight both the visible and invisible forms of labour that underpin collaborative and socially engaged practice. Through case studies and their own in-situ or in-process projects, participants will explore the distinct, yet interconnected skills and spheres involved in this work.

Focus Areas

The 2026 Summer School brings together artists, curators, creative producers, activists, and guest contributors to explore a range of topics, including:

• The various forms of ‘value’ associated with collaborative and socially engaged practice.
• Managing expectations with commissioners, funders, and community partners.
• Re-examining the commissioning process, providing time for preliminary research before co-production.
• Building trust with ‘critical friends’ and ‘champions’ in long-term projects.
• Navigating the relationship between craft, care, and the essential role of aesthetics in collaborative and socially engaged projects.
• Addressing the challenges of co-creating material and cultural infrastructures within contested public spaces.
• Balancing artistic authorship with the collaborative dynamics of working with communities and collectives.
• Documenting and ‘finding the story’ of a project in partnership with diverse allies and communities.
• Identifying and establishing both temporary and permanent venues for exhibiting collaborative and socially engaged work, including galleries, public museums and private and public collections, archives and other civic and community spaces.
• Exploring innovative approaches to critical evaluation with potential commissioners, collaborators, and participants.

Programme Structure and Ethos

The Summer School is founded on a strong belief in the power of cooperative and transdisciplinary ‘thinking through doing’. It values peer-to-peer collaboration, cross-sector solidarity, and mutual support among participants. The six-day immersive format provides an incubator environment where participants engage with live case studies, participate in skills training workshops, critically reflect, and receive one-to-one mentoring.

The Summer School is delivered in partnership by Create and Learning Lab Agency with funding support from The Arts Council of Ireland.

Summer School Team and Facilitators

Summer School Director: Dr Áine O’Brien – Independent Curator/Researcher, Learning Lab Agency

Summer School Producer: Áine Crowley – Programme Manager, Arts and Engagement, Create

Summer School Assistant Producer: Carolann Courtney – Programme Coordinator, Create

Visiting Artists and Facilitators:

Dominik Czechowski, Curator, Researcher and Writer

John Conway, Socially Engaged Artist

Dana Olărescu, Socially Engaged Artist

About Killary Lodge Co. Galway

Participants will stay in Killary, Co. Galway – a country lodge nestled among mature native trees just 250m from the waters of Killary Fjord, in the heart of Ireland’s stunning Wild Atlantic Way. The house has 10 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. Please note that participants must be willing to share bedrooms, however this will be accommodated in consultation with you. The house is wheelchair accessible: it includes a lift to the first floor and ramps to access outdoor spaces. Please contact us if you have any questions or need clarification. The residential will include full board, travel and an appropriate participant allowance to cover additional costs incurred.

For enquiries contact: support[at]create-ireland.ie

Making an Expression of Interest

If you wish to participate in the 2026 Summer School on Collaborative Practice and Social Change, please submit an Expression of Interest (EOI). The EOI should outline your experience in collaborative and socially engaged practice, and describe what you hope to contribute to the cooperative values and ethos of the School. Applicants must read the Guidelines document, linked on this page, before applying.. The Deadline for Expressions of Interest is 5.30pm, 20 April 2026.

Summer School Team and Visiting Artists

Dominik Czechowski is a London-based curator, researcher and writer. His interdisciplinary practice sits at the intersection of contemporary arts, community participation and social practice, expressed through a range of exhibition, publishing, public programming, research and commissioning activities, with a focus on collaborative and process-oriented modes of production. He has held curatorial positions at several public arts institutions including Modern Art Oxford, Hayward Gallery, Arnolfini, and Barbican Art Gallery, and has worked independently as an editor of and contributor to artist publications and exhibition catalogues. He is a member of the Executive Board of AICA-UK (Association of International Art Critics).

John Conway is a socially engaged visual artist working in Ireland. John’s practice is characterised by innovative multi-disciplinary projects produced in response to sensitive and challenging community contexts. His projects involve the intersection of diverse art forms, including sculpture, installation, moving image, audio, theatre, virtual reality, publication, and curation. His working process is characterized by experimentation with sculptural and 3-dimensional structures, methodologies of acute listening, sensitivity to context and a robust interrogation of artistic processes across collaborative contextual work and formalised gallery output. John is a 3-year studio resident at Temple Bar Gallery and Studios.

Áine Crowley is Programme Manager in Arts and Engagement, Create. In this role, Áine advances Create’s work to support artists and communities of interest and/or place to realise high-quality collaborative arts practice, through ongoing professional development support, project opportunities and the development of cross-sectoral alliances and partnerships. She coordinates the Artist in the Community Scheme. Before joining Create, Áine led community arts research for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council and Voluntary Arts Ireland. She has worked on ambitious collaborative projects including Hungry Tea, a durational site-specific performance with artist Mark Storor, and Creative Connections, a women’s intercultural group.

Carolann Courtney is Programme Coordinator for Create. She works across all Create’s programmes, with a particular focus on creative placemaking, artist development and socially engaged and collaborative arts production support. Her work engages directly with communities, artists and stakeholders to successfully realise a programme’s ambitions, aims and objectives. Carolann delivered the Creative Places Tuam pilot(2020-2025) and the Creative Places National Network (2021-2024) with Create and key partners. Prior to this role, Carolann worked as the arts, health and wellbeing specialist for Kildare County Council, progressing the council’s specialist work to create high quality arts practice in health care settings.

Dr Áine O’Brien is a curator/researcher who has worked across the arts, education and activism in the US, Ireland and the UK; and is director of Learning Lab Agency. Áine was co-founder/co-director of Counterpoints (2012–2020), a London-based arts agency foregrounding art, displacement and social change. Current projects include: Socially Engaged Art and the Public Practice of Reconciliation (with the MAC Belfast and National Sculpture Factory, Cork). Co-Curator/Organiser: Bearing Witness in Turbulent Times – The Urgency of Socially Engaged Art and Community Practice (October 2026). She serves on the Strategic & Ethical Advisory Board of the Berlin/Damascus-based organisation, Co- Culture.

Dana Olarescu is a socially engaged artist whose practice unfolds through sustained collaborations with diverse communities across the UK. Her long-term projects critically examine systemic inequities, working in close relationship with those most directly impacted by racist, patriarchal, and capitalist policies. Moving between installation, performance, and social design, her work foregrounds collective knowledge production as a catalyst for social change. Projects have been showcased in arts institutions and platforms, including Tate Modern, the London Short Film Festival, the National Maritime Museum, Art Gene, ArtHouse Jersey, Art Walk Projects, x-church, in-situ, Pier Projects, Incheon Art Platform (South Korea), La Virgule (France), and Tanzhaus NRW (Germany).

Create is the national development agency for collaborative arts in Ireland. Our work initiates cross-sectoral national and international partnerships which support artists and communities to co-create work of depth, ambition and excellence. Our mission is to lead the development of collaborative arts practice by enabling artists and communities to create exceptional art together. As a resource organisation we offer supports for artists working in social and community contexts. These include professional development, mentoring, project development support, commissioning and project opportunities as well as research and training. We have managed the Artist in the Community Scheme for the Arts Council since 2002.

Learning Lab Agency is a transdisciplinary initiative dedicated to addressing the complex local and global challenges and achievements inherent in socially engaged practice. Providing support to artists, cultural workers and cross-sector projects, learning labs are offered through a variety of formats including mentoring, curation, research, immersive incubators, roundtables and workshops. Within the context of the Summer School, the learning lab methodology  is used to design a dynamic pedagogy and collaborative environment, where participants are actively encouraged to experiment, (un)learn together and contribute collectively to the co-creation of new projects and future visions for social change.